


Dark Father

by echoesoftheforce



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Leia, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, BAMF Leia Organa, Bail Organa doesn't exist, Character Death, Dark, Dead Ozzel, Emperor Vader, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, I'm Sorry, Imprisoned Yoda, Jedi Leia Organa, Leia Organa Deserves Better, Leia is a Kenobi, Leia knows her real father, Luke isn't here much, No Force Ghosts, Nothing explicit, Obi-wan thinks Anakin Skywalker is dead, Ozzel, Palpatine is Dead, Piett is confused, Piett is on the verge of insanity, Poor Obi-Wan, The Force protects its children, Torture, Unconscious use of the Force, Vader has no idea, Vader saves the day, Vader thinks Obi-wan killed his daughter, Yoda - Freeform, Young Piett, or at all
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-06-10 08:50:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15287952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/echoesoftheforce/pseuds/echoesoftheforce
Summary: AU where Palpatine is dead, and Bail Organa doesn't exist. 15 years after Mustafar, Darth Vader, Emperor of the Galactic Empire, discovers Obi-wan Kenobi hiding on Tatooine. When he discovers a young Force sensitive upon the execution of Obi-wan Kenobi, his interest is piqued. Her name was Leia Kenobi, and he was not going to allow the daughter of his worst enemy die quickly. Perhaps he'll extract the truth from her first.Or perhaps the girl resembled someone else so much that he stayed his hand.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not mine. Wish it was.

  _Anakin Skywalker. A father._

_He watched his sleeping wife as she slept, her hazel tresses covering her face. Softly, he stroked the sides of her face. He could feel the Force swirling around her, singing a lilting chorus of perfect happiness and joy._

_A child. The best of him and Padme, combined into a single being he'll love and protect for the rest of his life. Leia. That'll be her name. The name of his daughter._

_  
_

* * *

 

_A girl with brown hair and hazel eyes ran towards him. "Come here, my Princess." Anakin Skywalker called to the child, who squealed and jumped into his open arms. Padme stood behind them, laughing in delight._

 

* * *

 

Darth Vader bolted upright, gasping for air. He rarely got any sleep nowadays, and if he did, he would dream of them. He tightened his fist as a solitary tear slid down his ravaged skin. It has been fifteen years since Mustafar. If his daughter were alive, he would be proclaiming her as the Crown Princess of the Empire in a year's time. Padme would have been his Queen, turning the galaxy into a peaceful and happy place where neither slavery nor corruption existed.

But that was not to be.  _Kenobi_. Vader nearly spat as he remembered the traitor's name. Thanks to the man, everything he ever loved was dead. Gone forever. He still remembered watching Kenobi pick up his beloved Padme and leave as he burned on the banks of the lava streams. He still remembered Palpatine cruelly bringing him back to life and encasing him in this black suit. He still remembered his horror and grief when Palpatine told him that Padme and his child were gone.

And he still remembered how Palpatine clutched his throat, writhing in agony as his own monstrous creation brought his fingers together and killed him.

His comlink sounded. "What is it?" His baritone voice sounded weary rather than murderous. Perhaps, he mused to himself, he would have been far more bad tempered if that Darth Sidious was alive. "Your Highness, we have detected Jedi activity on Tatooine." Vader's lips twisted into a small smile. He had Kenobi at last.

 

 

The Dune Sea stretched far and wide. A Lambda class shuttle landed majestically at the top of a sandy hill. _I thought I swore never to come back here_ , Vader thought to himself as he strode into the sweltering, but gradually dissipating heat.

Obi-wan Kenobi watched as the twin suns began to set. His young daughter was in the hut, playing with her new T-16 Skyhopper figurine. Obi-wan doted on the girl as his own. Anakin Skywalker would have wanted that. He would often tell the child stories of her real father, of their adventures before he died in the Jedi Purge. Anakin Skywalker's body was never found.

And then he saw the Imperial shuttle. Darth Vader was here, and neither one of them would survive if he doesn't act fast. He rushed back into the hut.

"Leia!"

A girl wearing a simple tan dress opened the doors. He took just a second to admire the two braids that he had done up for her, just as he had every day of the last fifteen years. Everything was about to crumble. This was it.

"Darth Vader is coming for us. We have to go, now!"

"Where to?" Fear flickered in her eyes. She, too, could feel the approaching Force presence.

"Away. There's no time left, quickly!"

The door slammed open. Obi-wan watched, aghast, as the Dark Lord of the Sith entered their abode.

"Obi-wan Kenobi. It's been a long time."

"You don't know what you're talking about, Darth. We've never met." Obi-wan intoned cautiously as he called his lightsaber to his hand.

"Oh, I do." The red blade burst to life, screaming its rage and fury in the form of a low, sinister hum.

Leia backed away as the two locked their blades on each other, the ghostly red glow alternating with a shining blue light. Darth Vader shot her a look from the corner of his eye. She immediately averted his glance, despite the fact that his visors were opaque from outside view.

He immediately felt her spike of fear in the Force. Interesting. A Force-sensitive child. A padawan. He would deal with the girl soon enough. Meanwhile, he had a Kenobi to contend with.

Another series of clashes ensued, before their blades locked again. This time, Vader had other ideas. He slid his saber across Kenobi's as he stepped across--

\-- And cut away Obi-wan Kenobi's legs.

A rush of memories dashed to his head.

_"You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you."_

Kenobi fell to the ground, as Vader positioned his blade above his chest and drove it in.

"Father!" The girl rushed to his side.

Darth Vader fought to shove these unwanted thoughts back into the abyss of his mind as he took in the new information. A daughter. He smirked as he considered the possibilities. He could turn her to the dark side, twist her mind so utterly against her dead father, and replace--

\-- And replace the daughter he never had.

How dare he even entertain that thought! The very idea that he would ever allow this Kenobi girl to be his Leia. The very idea!

"Don't take my daughter. Please." Obi-wan Kenobi coughed his words out. Darth Vader bent down as he watched his old enemy cough out his words. He was on the verge of death. And he whispered, "I will take yours, just as you killed mine. My _brother_."

And in that moment, in that moment, the Jedi realized exactly who was behind that mask.

"You are... you're..." But his last breath wasn't enough to complete his final sentence, and Obi-wan Kenobi saw his world plunge into darkness.

Outside, the last of sunshine disappeared into night.


	2. Chapter 2

 

The child was kneeling next to the dead body of her father. Agony flashed in her eyes, and she looked to Vader with so much sorrow, pain and righteous anger, for a moment he saw _someone else_.

Then he blinked, and the image of whoever he had subconsciously imprinted on the girl faded away. The girl picked up her father's saber and activated it, her hands shakily positioning it in front of her as she fought back another onslaught of tears. There she was, a weakling of a Jedi. Even a youngling could do better.

And Leia, his daughter, would have been far, far better than this Kenobi spawn.

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes as the girl charged at him, pushing her aside with the Force. She fell onto the floor. A flick of his wrist made the girl unconscious. Suddenly, his mind developed the strange mental image of him tenderly carrying the girl in front of him, back to his shuttle.

Kriff. What was wrong with his brain today? With an annoyed groan too low to be picked up by the vocoders, he ordered two troopers to bring the girl back to his shuttle.

 

The girl stirred as she was roughly thrown into a cell in the brig of the Devastator. Darth Vader strode into the tiny room, illuminated with bright lights and painted white all over. A clear attempt at psychological torture. Yet he knew that any Force sensitive would be far more resistant. He expected no less from the Kenobi girl. Especially when her Force presence was so bright, it was almost as if she had far more potential than that Obi-wan would ever had. What if she really isn't Obi-wan's daughter? What if...

Vader nearly slapped himself. He seriously needed to stop imagining that his daughter is alive and in front of him because she _isn't_. This girl is the daughter of a traitor and she shall be treated accordingly.

At that moment, he realised that he had been standing there, absolutely silent, for the last few minutes. The girl was observing him with a strange look, and he realised that he hadn't been shielding his thoughts fully. The girl has felt his sorrow and his pain through the Force.

A humiliating mistake that he would never repeat again. He tightened his shields as the youngling looked away, seemingly catching on to the fact that she had intruded into something private.

"The daughter of Obi-wan Kenobi. Never thought your father would break his precious Jedi Code." He sneered, disgust dripping through his voice. "Tell me your name, girl."

The girl refused to speak, her eyes blazing with a resolve he last saw in... never mind.

"Your name, I said."

Silence. He used the Force to probe her mind, but her mental shields were strong. They'll have to do this the hard way then.

"Bring in the IT-O."

Darth Vader watched as the girl inched away from the droid in desperation, as the droid's needle pierced through the skin of her forearm.

 

Leia winced as the droid removed the needle. Her skin was tingling. Circles began to swim in and out of her eyes. She gritted her teeth as she faintly heard Vader's words, "That is a hallucination serum. Now, your mind has been opened to my suggestions. You will feel everything that I describe until you decide to tell the truth."

No. She can't tell him.

"Your name, and everything you know about the Rebellion."

Rebellion? What rebellion? Her father never told her about any rebellion. And her name, her father said, is a secret.

"Don't... know."

"Very well." Darth Vader looked to her. "You're in a pit of lava. Your limbs have burned and wasted away into nothingness. You can feel the fire digesting your insides." He forced the sensation into her mind, and watched her writhe in pain as the chains on her hands jerked and slacked with her movement.

"All this will stop the moment you tell me about the Rebellion and your name."

"No rebellion..." Vader senses the truth in this.

"Kenobi..."

Darth Vader flexed his hands in impatience. "Your first name!"

"Can't..."

"As you wish. A hot ember lands on your bare back and your skin melts away."

Leia's scream was blood-curdling, but Vader has heard far worse. He stood, stoic and unmoving.

"My... my name is Leia Kenobi."

 

"You are back in the prison cell. Awake." His voice was distant and detached. The girl gasped as she clawed at the metal bench, her Force presence radiating with fear and horror. But Vader had a piece of information far more vital to absorb.

Her name was Leia. _Leia_.

And he looked down at the girl, loose strands of hair hanging in front of her eyes, and he wondered what colour it was. He wanted to take her into his arms and tell her that everything was okay. He wanted to wipe away her tears for her. He wanted to pretend, just for a moment, that Leia Kenobi was Leia Skywalker.

His arm lifted itself and nearly touches the sides of her cheek. Then it falls away.

He shut down the impertinent impulse and strode away, reproaching himself for giving in to his feelings again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The longest yet. I'll try to update weekly once I settle a national exam next week.

 

Leia shut her eyes, willing herself to try and forget her bleak reality. She tried to imagine that she was back home at Tatooine, shooting womp rats with her friend Luke Skywalker. Or watching the suns set over the Dune Sea. Or getting reprimanded by her father for damaging her T-16 again.

Anything was better than the current state of affairs.

When she opened her eyes, she was still in the cell with bright lights. What day was it anyway? She has lost track of time. She shut her eyes in a bid to meditate, but more pressing thoughts infiltrated the mind which she tried to clear.

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she remembered the last gesture from him. She had watched his hand raise to her face, but it wasn't a violent action. It was full of warmth, sorrow, and through the Force, she felt... affection.

Force, she was hallucinating.

What had she told him? Leia Kenobi. Good. At least she hasn't told him the entire truth. At least she still had one secret that she could take to her grave.

The secret being the fact that Leia Kenobi is Leia Skywalker.

 

Darth Vader returned to his chambers, visibly shaken by both the child and his irrate actions. No, seriously, what was he thinking when he nearly brushed his hands across her cheek? That Leia Kenobi is his daughter? Oh, please. Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, Emperor of the Galactic Empire, was hallucinating. He scoffed.

He examined the lightsaber in his hands. The same blue one he last saw on Mustafar. He shut his eyes as he remembered Mustafar. I was a slave to the Jedi then. And now, a slave to fate. 

In any case, he now had a worthy apprentice to twist to the dark side. The daughter of Kenobi, to boot. Obi-wan would be horrified. And has he tested her midichlorian levels yet?

Wait. The girl.

He remembered the incredulity and shock he felt from her as he left the prison cell. Oh, no. He didn't reveal his emotions to her. He didn't. He didn't. 

Bantha shit, he did.

 

R2-D2 crept through the corridors of the Devastator. He had witnessed his young mistress getting abducted by a cyborg in a black mask. And he would be the one to save her.

Typical Skywalkers. Always in need of his droid magic. And then there was the girl. Ever since his previous Master disappeared, Artoo has sworn to keep his young charge safe.

A scream punctuated his sensors. With a worried electronic whimper, he leaned his body backwards and steered himself towards the brig.

In his storage port, a cylindrical object rattled ever so slightly.

 

Leia stared at the ceiling, idly counting the number of rings of light she could observe. From the corner of her mind, a memory of her late father reappeared.

_It was going to be Leia's life day in two days time. The cheeky young girl crept towards her meditating father, careful not to make any noise._

_"Boo!" Her innocent and adorable laughter was punctuated by a startled yell from a certain Obi-wan Kenobi. Immediately, three floating pebbles clattered onto the floor. The child dropped into a cross-legged position. "Daddy, I'm already five. Won't you teach me these magic tricks yet?" Her father raised an eyebrow. "Youngling, first, you're only four years, eleven months and twenty-nine days old. Not yet five." He nearly chuckled as the girl's hopeful grin turned into a pout. "And second, what do we say about learning the ways of the Force?"_

_"It's dangerous, and the Empire might come after me, and then they might turn me evil."_

_"And?" Obi-wan was the one grinning now. The girl had missed out the... most important clause._

_Leia huffed. "And it's not a magic trick."_

_"There, that's why. Now what else do you want for your Life Day?"_

_"Please, daddy..." Leia's eyes might have been brown like her mother, but she looked just like young Anakin Skywalker whenever he begged Obi-wan to give him a sweet. He couldn't say no to these puppy eyes._

_"Fine. Once you're five."_

_The delight on the girl's face was impossible to miss as she jumped around the small house with ecstasy. "Daddy's teaching me the-"_

_"Shush!"_

_"Sorry, Daddy." Obi-wan's heart melted again at the sound of her cherubic voice. He took the girl by the shoulders. "Leia, no one must know of your Jedi ancestry. If someone learns that you are the daughter of Anakin Skywalker, even I cannot keep you safe anymore. Always remember that."_

_"Yes, Daddy." The child sat on her father's lap and Obi-wan wrapped his arms around her, resolving to keep her safe in his arms for always._

Leia never forgot the time she first touched her father's lightsaber. The stars sang to her from above, and in her hand she could feel the crystal turning warm and vibrating. When she hit the ignition switch, she saw the bright blue blade, made of pure light, embodiment of who she was and what she will be.

She only noticed the other saber when she was twelve. It was equally beautiful in its construct, with a slanted edge above smooth metal, dark strips of some rare black stone creeping up from the bottom. It called to her.

 

_Leia gently set down her father's lightsaber, and approached the other one with mounting curiosity._

_A legacy, a time before you. A past long gone._

_She touched the hilt._

_"I will become the most powerful Jedi ever!_ "

_"It's not fair!"_

_Images rained on her eyes. A young couple embroiled in a war they cannot escape. A prophecy. A dream. A child, held back by chains of a slave._

_"Is it possible to learn this power?"_

_"Not from a Jedi."_

_She saw-- no, felt-- his despair, his pain, his anger--_

_"You turned her against me!"_

_"You have done that yourself!"_

_Daddy?_

_And then she saw it. Two men standing by the river banks, each with a blue saber that stood out against the red lava._

_"It's over Anakin, I have the high ground!"_

_She saw three limbs fall away._

_No, Father. No._

_The father her heart cried out in pain for was not Obi-wan._

_"I hate you!"_

_"You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you."_

_And then she saw the flames engulf the father she was not allowed to speak of._

_Oh, Father._

_She watched as the flames continued to destroy Anakin Skywalker._

_And suddenly, she was back in her sand grotto._

_"Leia! What happened?" Her father had seen her._

_"The lightsaber, I saw--" She managed only a sob as she tried to explain._

_That day, she learnt that Anakin Skywalker was a far more complicated man then she had believed._

Leia Kenobi's eyes flew wide open at another realisation.

The lava. She saw exactly the same thing just a few moments ago.

Could Darth Vader be related to...?

No. Impossible. Her father was dead. Darth Vader is a cyborg. Not a human.

Not her father.


	4. Chapter 4

 

A presence outside his doors shook Vader out of his meditative trance. In his mind, he summoned the doors to slide apart as he heard brisk footsteps come nearer.

"Lieutenant Piett."

Vaguely, Firmus Piett realised that Vader has yet to open his eyes. The young captain proceeded to read from the holo in his hand, keeping his voice steady. He had learnt from observation that bootlickers and cowards always died first. Usually with ruptured airways and broken collarbones.

"Your Majesty. We have detected a non-organic being moving towards the brig. It is not recorded in any of our registrars, and preliminary visual evidence shows that it is an astromech droid, white with blue markings..."

And under the mask, beneath a scarred and torn Darth Vader, a man once known to the galaxy stirred and awakened. Piett was still talking, but he no longer heard him.

"Artoo?"

But the vocoders never picked up that soft sound.

Piett tried hard not to falter as Vader continued to sit in silence. Vader made a mental note to promote Piett soon. He was one of the few men on board the Devastator that actually lived up to Vader's expectations of efficiency. Finally, his eyelids opened to reveal clear blue eyes.

"An R2 unit. Let it think it got by unnoticed first. I have other plans for it."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

 

At first she was dazed and confused. Where was she? What happened? The answers failed to come to her mind immediately as she stared at the white light, filtered by blurry strands of brown.

Slowly, the events of the last few hours (Days? Weeks? How long has it been?) made their way back to memory. Obi-wan. Her father. Murdered by Darth Vader. Darth Vader, the force of evil. Darth Vader, a monster.

And out nowhere, a voice whispered:

_Darth Vader, a lost soul for you to redeem._

Leia whipped her head around in a bid to find the source of whatever it was that spoke to her. Nothing. Her imagination, then. Or maybe she has gone mad from all of this torture. She wrapped her thin arms around herself, trying to ward off the cold.

Her eyes pooled with tears.  _Daddy, where are you when I need you?_

No one answered.

Leia sighed. And then she got to work.

She slowly stretched out to the Force, weaving it into a formidable web of steel. She was silently grateful for the shield that her father had built for her ever since she was born. The Force trembled and spiralled around her, but it always tapered towards the one other Force user on the Devastator.

And it was coming decidedly closer.

 

The dark side shrouded Vader and Leia could not detect where the cape ended and the dark fog began. Years ago, her father Obi-wan had discovered that she was gifted in the Force, and they decided that it would be a good idea to strengthen these talents.

Those skills definitely came in handy this time, thought Leia as she slammed her mental shields down, swearing that she will not give in to Vader again.

"Leia Kenobi."

Her eyes flashed with anger. "What do you stand to gain by killing my father?" The words came out like spears, but Vader never flinched.

"None of your concern, girl."

So much anger. The girl could make a fine apprentice. Now he just had to figure out how to turn these brown eyes golden.

Wait, brown?

How did he know it was brown?

He swept that question aside, vowing to revisit them later.

Vader was about to proceed with his proposal, but the girl was not going to back down without a fight. "No, you tell me. Why? What has my father ever done to you?"

Vader stared at the girl, unnerved. Her every mannerism reminded him of someone familiar, and suddenly he lost the resolve to question her. "You may _interview_ her about the droid, Lieutenant." He turned away, unwilling to lose his composure before a prisoner again, leaving one young Piett with the girl.

Piett looked down at the tiny child. She was painfully young. No more than sixteen, he guessed as he read his report.  _Correction, fifteen._ She had spent less than twenty-four standard hours here and she was already in this sorry state. And his duty is to make her plead for death by the time he leaves the room.

 

To Leia, Vader's sudden leave appeared as if he was too busy to care about some Jedi spawn. Just as well. One less problem to deal with.

Piett, on the other hand, watched the Jedi girl with growing unease. He would have to interrogate this child. Not for the first time, he regretted joining the Imperial Fleet. But there was a job to do, and it was a job he would do well. He took out a holo.

"What do you know of the droid R2-D2?"

Silence.

Of course Jedi scum like her wouldn't answer until more incentives were placed on the table.

"Send in the IT-O."

 

Leia's mind was racing. What droid? Where is Artoo? What-

The familiar whirring of the dreaded black sphere sent her jerking backwards in alarm.

"The Jedi has already done this once, and she might already be immune to the lowest setting." One trooper informed the Lieutenant. She fought to stop a high pitched scream from escaping her throat as the droid slid a needle into her skin.

Piett muttered an apology to every deity on his homeworld of Axxila as he took hold of the crude torture device that the trooper held out to him.

 

Leia gritted her teeth. Blood pooled around her arm as she felt her muscles tear apart.

No. She will not scream. She will not surrender.

She will not answer.

The pain increased exponentially. Her fingers clenched into a fist as she fought to remain lucid. The Light continued to build a wall around her, trying to protect her. But a barrier of invisible energy couldn't save her.

Leia Kenobi, in her desperation and under the haze of pain, has all but forgotten Kenobi's warning of using the Force. Breaking through the Force shields for the first time in her life, she sought it out and released one single word into the oceans of the Force, directed at no one in particular.

And yet, one person heard it.

Darth Vader, in his training halls practising with his saber, stumbled to the ground and barely caught himself when he heard these words.

_Father._

 

R2-D2 was trapped in a way he hadn't quite expected. Not in a cell in the prisons. But in a long hallway full of twists and turns. Not being equipped with the blueprints of the Star Destroyer was troublesome. The fact that his lifeform detectors seemed to be malfunctioning was worse. R2 grumbled as he set himself on the impossible task of saving Leia Skywalker.

 

_Father._

There was only one person in the entire galaxy whose voice could reach him like that. A Force bond, bound by flesh and blood.

His daughter, his Leia, was alive.

Darth Vader's eyes shone with tears.

He sent a wave of warmth through the Force back to the Force presence. It was strangely muted, as if something was hiding it, and he couldn't pinpoint the source of the presence. Through his stint with the Jedi, the Sith was very much aware of such tactics for hiding Force-sensitive children. Kenobi again.

He punched the wall, which immediately splintered.

Perhaps he could ask his young daughter instead.

 

Leia could hear Piett discussing her fate with the troopers, but she felt something else. Through the crack of her shield, another Force presence connected with her tendrils, and she felt something that reminded her of the sunshine in Tatooine. Something, someone had answered her calls at last.

Darth Vader.

No, that was impossible.

Impossible!

Her father was alive. The father who would take her across the galaxy. The father who she could truly and openly call her own. The father who, in a kinder galaxy, would have loved her more than all the stars put together. 

She thought back to what he had said to Obi-wan Kenobi on his deathbed.

_"I will take yours, just as you killed mine."_

Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker.

Darth Vader, who tortured and quite possibly maimed her.

Darth Vader was her father.

The strange thoughts she had picked up from the Sith returned to the forefront of his thoughts. The countless times Vader barely contained his emotions in front of her. She obviously resembled her mother. What was it that Obi-wan has always said?

_He loved your mother, and he would have loved you too._

In the face of this new knowledge, Leia had two choices. To accept it or to deny it.

Leia chose to deny.

 

Piett was surprised when he saw Darth Vader return to the cell, barely half an hour after he left.

"I'll take over from here. You may leave."

The twenty-eight year old Lieutenant walked out of the room, a little more shaken then when he entered. He promised to reevaluate his allegiance to the Empire as soon as he was out of Darth Vader's mind-reading range.

 

"So weak, just like your father."

Armed with a truth he doesn't have, she simply looked at him, her eyes shining with something Darth Vader couldn't quite place. Pity? Loathing? Regret?

He couldn't care less.

"So tell me. Kenobi." The name was pronounced in a voice laced with hatred. "Where did your precious father hide my daughter?"

 

She hated him. Hated him for not knowing. Hated him for not caring. His own daughter was right in front of him and he couldn't recognise her.

Leia Kenobi, like any other petulant child, refused to answer the father who failed even his first duty of protecting her.

_Protecting. Quite the opposite._

And so she gave him an answer.

"Your daughter? She's being held in a cell, likely getting tortured at the moment." Her voice sounded hoarse even though she never screamed.

She found her emaciated body flung on the floor like a rag doll, as Vader clenched his fists in rage.

But it was the truth, wasn't it?

"Where. Is. She? Tell me!"

Leia clawed her hands across the floor as blood began to clot in her fingernails, wincing at the effort it took to perform such a simple action.

Her eyes cloud with tears.

 

Vader, however, couldn't pick up on her feelings beyond the fear and hate on the surface.

He strode towards her.

"Your game is up, girl." He summoned a tendril of the Force to wrap around her neck. The child gasped for air on the floor, desperate for oxygen. "You know exactly where my daughter is, and you will tell me. Or die."

If she was not at the receiving end of Vader's brutality, Leia might have burst out laughing at this tragic irony.

"If you kill me, you'll never see your daughter again."

Darth Vader clenched his fist tighter.

"Die, if you so wish."

 

Leia was tempted to just release herself into the Force, but she couldn't do it. She had a father.

A father who was currently strangling her to death, as it is.

Still she clung on to what little life she had left.

Meanwhile, the man in front of her suddenly released her. Her throat was sore, and she stared at the ground, trying to catch her breath as someone else tried to contemplate the odd turn of events all over again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something awesome happens this chapter. But rest assured folks, this is just the beginning!

 

 

_No. She looked just like Padme on Mustafar 15 years ago._

He watched the tears streaking down her cheeks. There was something about her that seemed off. Through the tiny crack in the Force shield, he felt extremely strong emotions emanating from her bright presence. Her hate for him went way deeper than a child whose father had been killed by him would have been. And beneath this hate... There was something else.

But his former name wouldn't have been Anakin Skywalker if he wasn't a stubborn hothead.

He turned away, ignoring the blatant truth that was literally right under his nose.

 

"Leia Skywalker."

Darth Vader froze. He never thought he would hear that name coming from someone else. Still, he refused to face her. As if she could see the agony currently playing out on his face, anyway.

"That's her name, isn't it?" Her eyes blazed with calm fury.

Vader clenched his fists, not knowing that the girl behind him was doing the exact same thing.

"And you had the audacity to steal it!" Now his hands shook with fury as his cape slammed behind him, and he faced his young enemy as he made the accusation.

The young girl stumbled onto the metal bench, and Vader noted that the child's entire back was drenched with blood. He felt himself inwardly wince despite having seen worse.

Leia cradled her mangled left arm as she stood, leveraging against the cold wall for support as she dragged her torn legs upright. She regarded him with a stare devoid of expression. In a voice scarred with heartbreak, pain - and a unique quality last heard over a decade ago, she made her demand.

"Give me one good reason why I should tell you where she is."

He wanted to strangle her again, but rational thought took over as he realised that she held all the cards. Reluctantly he decided to keep the conversation civil.

"What qualifying reason do you want?"

The ever-present rebellious streak in Leia decided to make itself known. "For starters, you can tell me how you are going to torture her. Your track record tells me that you enjoy torturing 15 year old girls."

It didn't take Darth Vader to catch the bitter sarcasm in her tone.

The Sith had to keep his mouth from falling open as dignity blinded his head. How dare that kid even--

"She is my daughter, unlike you, Jedi filth! You have no right to think that you are anywhere on the same level as her." Leia remained silent, searching his mask, as if she could sense his unease underneath. In his attempt to defend himself, he nearly sounded frantic. "I'll never do anything of that sort to her."

If Leia had laughed, it would have been a sharp and bitter one. "You already have." There was a hint of sadness in her voice.

Vader's mind, numb with pain and anxiety, did not process that sentence as it wandered to the border of a life that no longer exists. He stared beyond a wall, seemingly grasping at a memory too far to reach at, an alternate life too impossible to dream of. "I would have loved her. If only I knew she was alive all these years. I would have torn the galaxy apart to find her."

Tears glimmered in Leia's eyes as she heard her father's heartfelt declaration.

"Really?" She sounded scared. Afraid that the wall that she has built between herself and her biological father would be shattered with that one word. 

He turned to her, glowering. "Don't you ever dare doubt for a moment that I love my only child, Jedi scum!"

 

Once again he watched her look upon him, and past her eyes he could see her soul, a child waiting for something, _someone_. "No, not even for a moment. I never doubted."

She watched, her gaze boring a hole into the depths of the dark and empty soul that belonged to Darth Vader. "You'll take me to her now."

He stood straight and firm, yet his voice trembled and shook.

Mother of Tatooine, does he still not understand?

She shut her eyes and made another decision.

Weary of everything that has come before, Leia regarded him with only a thin smile. "Leia Kenobi... never existed."

 

Behind the mask, a pair of brilliant blue eyes emerged from behind the fiery golden irises. 

Leia could feel the emotions emanating from him. Shock. Anger. Regret. Pain. Surprise. Gratitude. Love.

Then her senses slowly faded away as the Force shield crumbled apart, leaving only the child who has suffered way too much, and the full impact of the physical blows to her human body.

 

Leia felt her head begin to spin as a stab of pain ravaged her destroyed limbs. She stumbled backwards, and felt the darkness close in on her. She slipped into unconsciousness, barely noticing the strong hands that caught her.

 

_Leia Kenobi never existed._ Darth Vader let out a choked sob.

Those hazel eyes that he dreamed of every night. How did he not realise--

\--Force.

This was Leia Skywalker.

Leia. His long-lost daughter, his precious princess right in front of him and he never even realised.

How many times had he tortured her? How many times has he contemplated killing her?

How many nights has this precious child stared into the stars above pining for her father?

What has he done?

Holy Force, he had even ordered a death warrant processed for one Leia Kenobi. By the virtue of some unseen energy who knows the truth, and a fatherly instinct he had neglected to notice, the document had been left unsigned on his desk.

_"Give me one good reason why I should tell you where she is."_

Of course. What kind of father tortures and tries to kill his child, and expect her to accept her parentage? He looked to the child's broken arm.

_"You already have."_

What has he done?

He swore to the girl that he has harmed so thoroughly-- that he would never-- that he would never harm his own daughter. Oh, the irony.

Her chestnut hair. The paleness of her skin. The shape of her face. A perfect fusion of his beloved Padme and himself. And he had personally tortured her and allowed her to be tortured for hours on end. He was a monster. A monster. How could he expect her to forgive him?

_"No, not even for a moment. I never doubted."_

He never even asked for her forgiveness. What did he last call her?  _Jedi scum_. And yet he could feel the love and acceptance she surrounded him with.

Vader held the child in his arms. His little ray of light, the princess whose life he had missed day and night. The number of people he had killed as he mourned his baby girl. And she had been right there all along, waiting for her father to come home.

Vader then realised something even more heartbreaking. The girl had been holding out against the pain just to tell him this truth. She had suppressed everything with her exceptional Force abilities, drawing on her life force, which was weakening by the minute.

"Padme, my Angel." His words came out in ravaged sobs.

"What have I done?"

His words mirrored the ones spoken many years ago when he killed one Jedi. Except this time it was different. This time he would return to the Light and be the father that his daughter needed.

From a life long ago he remembered his own words the first time he discovered her presence.

_"This baby is a blessing."_

Of course she was. She was more than a blessing. So much more.

And now she was dying. Because of him. This time he won't fail her.

He knew what he had to do. Carefully placing her injured arm across her thin frame, he swept the dying child into his arms, and raced out of the prison cell.

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long! The last few weeks were incredibly hectic. I'll try to update more often but I have major exams coming up so... may the Force help me.

The hallways were filled with muffled gasps as the Emperor himself whisked through the long corridors.

Concentrating on the doors, he sent two Force tendrils to open it as he raced against time to save his daughter. The room was huge and spacious, with only a single hyperbaric chamber in its centre and a few pieces of large furniture. Vader had never really cared for meaningless embellishments. The only thing of meaning to him was Padme.

He stepped into the chamber and gently laid his daughter down. In the oxygen-rich atmosphere, he could now remove his mask. He gathered the Force, the light side of the Force, and pleaded it to save the girl. He felt it struggle in his dark tendrils, slipping away from his grasp.

Great. Even the Force wanted nothing to do with him. He screamed in rage. From his mask a terrible sound rang out of the vocoder, like a low thunder that raged on continuously. He couldn't even save his daughter now. Just as he had failed to save his wife. Just as he had failed to save his mother. Grief and pain swirled around him like a whirlpool. He softly touched the sides of Leia's face. She felt cold.

A soft tug to the Dark Lord's force presence quelled his anger. A single tendril. Perhaps the Force was willing to help him after all.

_Coruscant._ The voice of the Light itself sounded in Vader's mind.  _You must go to Coruscant._

Coruscant? Vader seethed. He wanted nothing to do with that --- creature. But he looked down at his little girl, hanging on to life by a single thread, and relented.

For his daughter's sake, he would seek out the old green midget.

 

Firmus Piett was in the mess when his receiver sounded. He retrieved it from his back pocket.

Darth Vader looked straight at him as his baritone voice spoke, "Lieutenant. Direct the ship to Coruscant."

 

For the first time in many years, Vader was not alone. He had a daughter. Every time he looked at Leia he discovered something new about her. Her cherubic cheeks. Her detached earlobes. He wondered what she was like as a child. Leia Skywalker, was without doubt, both a ball of sunshine and a spitfire. He nearly grinned as he toyed with a mental image of Obi-wan trying to deal with a young Leia.

Wait.

Obi-wan?

Since when did he start referring to him by his first name?

He was forgetting his place and stature. He was Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, Emperor of the Galactic Empire...

Oh, and the father of this little girl, who was, by the way, painstakingly raised by Obi-wan under the hot Tatooine sun. It occurred to Vader that Obi-wan did not even know his identity. If that was the case, doesn't that mean the poor old man was just trying to take care of Leia for his presumably dead friend? Vader ought to at least be grateful.

Vader rested against the curved walls of the chamber.

Obi-wan. His friend. And now...

_But no, you killed him._ A voice accused him, stabbing his soul like a knife.  _Everything he did for you, and you killed him._ Vader tried to justify his actions. Obi-wan had sliced his limbs away, left him to burn. He had stolen his wife. He was part of the Jedi Order who led him from one form of slavery to another. Doesn't that justify me killing him?

And then he saw the younglings he had slain on that fateful night. The last child, having watched her friends die one by one under the blazing blue lightsaber, looked up directly into his eyes. Her tearstained face made no impact on his sense of empathy, and he slashed her head away.

It rolled in front of him, and the features of the girl Vader had killed morphed into Leia's pretty face.

 

"No!" He felt his helmet hit against the sides of his hyperbaric chamber. It can't be real, can't be real...

Leia was still peacefully asleep beside him.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Thank the Force.

Yet the dream disturbed him and shook his core. He would really have to look into it once he had the time to spare.

 

On the other side of the ship, Piett had already completed his commanding officer's orders.

Piett was increasingly aware that he was very much the go-to person for pretty much all of Vader's commands. He refused to think of what that entailed for himself. It was far easier to just... do it.

But why did Vader hate that girl so much? And why was he carrying the girl away from the brig just now?

Nothing made sense. Force things, he supposed. Hopefully.

Piett hated to admit it, but his mind was already running amok with all the possibilities. He prayed to the Axxilan deities that Vader would never find out about his wild theories.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One update before I delve into my studies. Ozzel is sentenced to death for one count of arrogance and two counts of stupidity. Not spoiling anything.

 She was trapped.

Pitch black darkness. Or was she blind? She had no idea. Where was she?

The place was silent, with only droplets of water falling in an eerily rhythmic pace. From where, to where, she didn't know.

With a sudden flare of panic, she realised she did not know who she was.

Her hand wrapped around something solid and rough. A stalagmite. Stalagmite?

That was wrong. She couldn't possibly be in a cave. Last she remembered, she was in the prison cell of a Star Destroyer.

And now the memories slowly returned to her, drifting into her mind. Her name was Leia. She lived on Tatooine. Her best friend's name was Luke. Her father was--

Her father was Darth Vader.

Leia's surroundings became marginally brighter, and faintly she heard heavy footsteps sounding everywhere. 

Then she realised that the so-called stalagmites were glowing blue. White sparks, large and small, gently pulsed through those blue structures. The Force was extremely strong here, wherever she is.

Tree branches of a dark maroon red surrounded her. Dark red fluid coursed through it.

That was impossible. Leia was an intelligent young lady, but her hypothesis was beyond absurd. Upon closer inspection she arrived at the predetermined conclusion that she has been trapped in her own mind. The Force had gathered her conscious soul and ripped it apart from the rest of her dying body, preserving the girl in her as yet undamaged brain.

A thought laced with cheerful sarcasm made its way into the forefront of her mind: What other tricks will the Force come up with next?

 

Admiral Ozzel had seen the girl that Vader was carrying. A ravishing beauty. He would have her for himself. Taking the duplicate keys from his side pocket, he slotted it into the doors of the Emperor's living complex. Ozzel had planned this for a long time. He had longed to see what sort of treasures the Emperor had for himself, and today he caught a glimpse of one.

That girl was better off in his arms than in that of Darth Vader.

 

A warning in the Force tore Darth Vader from the front viewport. His daughter was in danger, he could see it. The Force lent him speed as he dashed past corridors, pushing aside confused officers and troopers.

 

The footsteps grew louder.

Leia felt the same flare and she got up in sudden panic. Vaguely she realised that those footsteps were not her father's. With none of her senses working, she relied on the Force to see, and saw the face of an Imperial officer creeping to her. The Force screamed in anger, and hurled outwards in every direction. Objects clattered to the floor, always missing the girl in the eye of the storm.

Ozzel was thrown onto the wall as a rather sharp shard of flying ceramic cut his face. He was about to beg the Emperor for mercy when he realised the Emperor wasn't even there. It was just him, and the sleeping girl. Impossible!

His shock did not break his twisted resolve, and he got to his feet, striding towards the girl again. That child would pay. He grinned lecherously as he caught another glimpse of her. But before he could touch her, this time, an unseen Force was winding around his throat.

Darth Vader stood at the door, one arm outstretched, hands balled in a fist. His cape billowed behind him.

"You have failed me for the last time."

Ozzel tried to cough his words out. "Sorry, highness- please-". With a thrust of his arm, Ozzel felt his body crash against the wall, a fatal blow as his ribs painfully cracked and pierced into his lungs.

In his final moments, the voice of Darth Vader made its way into his head.

"No one touches my daughter and lives, Ozzel. No one."

But he was already too far gone. 

 

The Force bond that held them together trembled with panic and fear. He held the child in his arms, his hands shaking. 

"I'll never leave you alone again, little Angel. Never."

 

Leia crouched in a corner of the space. It was still silent. There were whispers, but they were just out of her reach. Then like the light of the sun, the Force bond that bound father and daughter glowed with warmth.

She knew what had happened. Still shaken, she reached out to her father through the bond, and felt an intense wave of worry and a slowly subsiding anger. 

Leia managed a small smile. _So he had accepted that I am his daughter. And it seems he cares after all._

But she was still afraid. Unbecoming of a Jedi, although Obi-wan never forced their ways on her. The blood veins continued to pulse, and the incessant gurgling of fluids made her head hurt. She had to shut it out before it turned her mad, she remembered as much from her time with Kenobi. Sure, the Force meant to save her, but this environment was far from peaceful. She had to figure out a way to get out of here.

Slowly, she settled into a cross legged position. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the light within her, and let the Force take over. _Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity..._

 

Outside, Vader brushed her mind and felt fear fade away into peace.

 

Piett stepped into the large chamber. "Your highness..." His voice trailed away when he realised that his Emperor had the sleeping girl in his arms. He averted his gaze, only to find the dead body of Ozzel staring blankly at him. With nowhere else to direct his gaze to but empty space, he inwardly groaned.

"You may speak, Lieutenant."

"Yes, your highness. We have arrived in the Coruscanti system, estimated time of arrival is within five standard minutes." Piett glanced sideways as he saw a group of stormtroopers haul Ozzel away.

"Very good lieutenant." That was his cue to run away as far as possible--

"Stop right there, Firmus Piett." Piett froze and his entire body went completely rigid. No, not yet, he can't just die-

It was a wonder his voice still came out as steady and unperturbed. "Your highness?"

A second. Two seconds. How is his throat still not constricted?

"You will take command of this ship from now on,  _Admiral_ Piett."

His reply was automatic. "Thank you, milord."

 

It was only when Piett had reached outside the chamber, and when the doors had closed behind him, that he stumbled back to his quarters.


End file.
